Counting on Moru

Jul 9, 2026

Counting on Moru follows Moru’s intense likes and dislikes, showing how he immerses himself in playful adventures and in numbers that feel endless, fun, and full of possibility. Tree climbing, mango stealing, insect hunting, and flying kites shape his freedom, while number patterns become imaginative steps he “climbs” and “slides” through when tired. School life contrasts with this joy as Moru dislikes the classroom, fears a bad-tempered teacher, and describes a trapped atmosphere where children cannot ask or speak freely.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages38

Reading Time59 min

Moru’s Likes and Dislikes

Playing in Nature

Numbers as an Imaginative World

School and the Bad-Tempered Teacher

Counting on Moru Rukmini Banerji Nina Sabnani Moru had strong likes and dislikes . When he liked something, he loved it. And when he did not like something, he absolutely hated it. Noone could make him do things that he did not want to do and no one could stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Moru liked to climb trees and steal raw mangoes. He would creep along the branch pretending to be a cheetah in a deep dark jungle. He enjoyed catching insects-the bluegreen bottle fly with the big shiny head, the thin and crisp grasshopper, and the yellow butterfly whose colour came off like powder on his fingers. Moru loved flying kites, the higher the better. He would climb to the tallest terrace to get his kite to soar far above the clouds like a brilliant eagle trying to reach the sun . Moru liked numbers. Number 1 looked thin and lonely; 10 0w as fat and wealthy. How graceful 9 was, even more so when she stood next to 1 and became 19 . Numbers were like an unending staircase . Moru imagined climbing them one by one by one, racing up, sometimes two, sometimes three or four or more steps at a time. When he was tired, he saw himself sliding down the banister with the numbers waving at him. Unlike rice at lunchtime, which often finished before anyone was even half full, unlike friends who had to go home just as soon as the game was starting to be fun, numbers were always there . Unending and infinitely fun, to be juggled, sorted, matched, shared, laid out in a row, thrown away, put together and taken apart. 6 Moru liked going to school because many of his friends went too. He liked getting up in the morning and having somewhere to go. He liked the big playground but he did not like going to class. He did not like the teacher. He felt trapped in the room . The children could not ask questions, they could not move around and they could not speak when they wanted to say things. The teacher was badtempered. Moru felt that the teacher did not like the children at all. Maybe he did not even like being a teacher or coming to a school. In any case, children did not like the teacher either. Every morning, the teacher wrote things on the blackboard. In a loud voice, he told the children to copy it down on their slates. Then he would go outside. If the boys could copy his things from the blackboard nicely, the teacher looked at it. If they could not do it, the teacher got angry. When he was angry, he would call the children names and if he got very angry he would hit them hard.

FAQs

What does Moru enjoy most when he is outside?

Moru loves climbing trees, pretending to be a cheetah in a jungle while catching insects, and flying kites as high as possible.

How does Moru relate to numbers?

Moru finds numbers graceful and endless, imagining them as an unending staircase he can climb and even slide down when he is tired.

Why does Moru dislike going to class?

Moru dislikes the teacher and feels trapped in the room because the children cannot ask questions, move freely, or speak when they want to.

Jul 9, 2026

Upload by Olivia Brown